Ship’s Oil Spill Closes Coos Bay Oyster Farms

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has closed the commercial harvest of Coos Bay oysters, saying spilled fuel from the grounded freighter New Carissa has pushed into a sensitive estuary.

Friday’s closure affects four large oyster farms, which have about $10 million worth of young oysters seeded into a bay that ranks as the richest oyster-farming area in Oregon.

“We just don’t want to take any risk of oiled shellfish getting out to the public,” said Deb Cannon, a shellfish specialist with the state agency. “If we do that, it doesn’t only hurt the public but the industry, too.”

The 639-foot Japanese-owned cargo ship ran aground on the beach a mile north of the entrance to Coos Bay on Feb. 4 and last Monday began leaking oil from its fuel tanks.

Faced with the threat of the ship breaking up in stormy weather and spilling nearly 400,000 gallons of tar-like bunker fuel oil on southern Oregon beaches, authorities came up with a bold plan to crack open the ship’s fuel tanks with explosives and set the fuel on fire with napalm.

The fuel was ignited with a fiery explosion Thursday night. During the blaze, the ship broke apart, spilling more oil. Authorities have estimated at least two-thirds of the fuel has burned.

The ship fire, which was briefly reignited Saturday after burning out overnight, was out again Saturday afternoon. Less than 10% of the fuel is believed to have leaked out since cracks developed in the fuel tanks Monday.

The oyster farmers are among the most vulnerable to the oil spill, but crabbers and other local fishermen fear that their reputations could be sullied by the notoriety of an oil spill amid some of their prime harvest zones.

The spill also prompted state officials to close recreational shellfish harvesting on ocean beaches in Coos and Douglas counties, Lower Coos Bay and the Charleston Boat Basin.

In Coos Bay, high tides have pushed oil about five miles up a roughly 20-mile estuary. The slick forced the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology to shut down intake pipes that supply its sea life research projects with seawater. The institute must use water from a storage tank, which has limited capacity.

The fuel oil in the bay has approached within a mile of some oyster farms.

A skimmer boat is picking up visible oil slicks that streak the water. But spill officials said the oyster farms were in an area that couldn’t be effectively protected with booms.

“This area grows the biggest and best oysters on the West Coast,” said Lilli Clausen of Clausen Oysters. “They ought to figure out some way to protect it.”

A prime commercial crabbing area just offshore of the freighter is streaked with fuel oil slicks, and Coast Guard officials have prohibited fishing boats within four miles of the grounded ship.

The closure has kept crabbers stuck on shore, unable to retrieve thousands of pot traps.

Curt Janke of Bandon Pacific Seafoods said he was wary of buying any crabs from pots within the 4-mile zone. “We put out one of the most sought-after and top-quality products on the West Coast, and we don’t want to do anything to compromise that,” Janke said.

Scott Adams, manager of Hallmark Fisheries, said he’s asking the crabbers to sign a document saying they will avoid fishing in oily waters.

“I don’t want to do anything that would give anyone cause not to buy fresh shellfish from the coast of Oregon,” Adams said.

At the Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston, at the mouth of Coos Bay, marine biologists are conducting experiments on crustaceans and sea life, including several financed by National Science Foundation grants that average $300,000 each.

The sea life in tanks requires 10,000 gallons of fresh seawater each day. The water is taken from an area that is fouled with oil. But the backup storage tank the institute is using will be depleted Monday. Without a source of fresh seawater, the crustaceans and other sea life could die and the experiments would be ruined.